Squarepusher × Z-MACHINES

A guitarist with 78 fingers and a drummer with 22 arms

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Picture of creepylonghair33 achievements

+6 1. creepylonghair commented 10 years ago

very "animusic" but nowhere near as good :S
Picture of Judge-Jake53 achievements

+4 2. Judge-Jake commented 10 years ago

I would rather listen to this than half of what is in the charts at the moment. I'd call this Cyborg jazz :|
Picture of orion27 achievements

+5 3. orion commented 10 years ago

Sounds very dry, almost exactly like a midi file. If I only heard the sound, I would have said it's synthesized, not played on real instruments. No emotion, no heart, more like a background for a tetris game.

I wonder - is it so hard to program some emotion into the music? Some variation and imperfection -- not random, but with some parameters for building and releasing tension, tuned with some audience testing?
Picture of Thanos34 achievements

+1 4. Thanos commented 10 years ago

The majority of the second half sounds very much like when an amateur is trying out some weird "keyboard" application on his/her computer (allowing for various instrument output per keystroke), and just presses keys randomly and frantically. I am talking from experience here, and it positively hurts my ears...

The implementation of the automata musicians is very Japanese and generally awesome, however, s/he would do well to include people other than engineers, and generally closer to the world of music, the next time it comes to putting together an actual song.
Picture of jackDjohnson35 achievements

-3 6. jackDjohnson commented 10 years ago

I think we finally found a replacement for Axle Rose !! LMAO :O :D
Picture of stargatefan32 achievements

+1 7. stargatefan commented 10 years ago

Although I totally get #3 & #4, it is just following a programmed sequence.
So I guess only some form of artificial intelligence will be capable of random variation and imperfection.
We are only anthropomorphising here.
#1 http://www.snotr.com/video/1607/Animusic_-_Aqua_Harp
Picture of schlafanzyk35 achievements

+4 8. schlafanzyk commented 10 years ago

I absolutely disagree with the author's disagreement. It feels exactly like robot music - cold and super/sub-human. It is an impressive work of art and could theoretically be considered great music, but the tiny human imperfections and our motoric limits are what makes music great in an emotional way - for most people anyway, even in Jazz/Funk/Progressive. It's the same reason why computer-generated, perfectly symmetric faces don't look nearly as beautiful as real faces, which are just very close to the theoretical ideal. That individual emotional connection is the one thing pop-rock/pop-soul music gets right - even though most of it is complete commercial horse shit these days, because it's the worst of both worlds: Every song written by a group of a dozen people, then programmed, synthesized, auto-tuned/melodined to hide all imperfections, and trying very hard to be emotional at the same time. It doesn't work. Pop music today is the antithesis to what pop music once was. But robot music is not the answer. Neither is all the hipster pseudo-indie pop with incoherent lyrics and simplistic instrumentation.
I can't believe I sound like a grumpy grandpa.. and I'm not even 27
Picture of EDMPingu22 achievements

+1 9. EDMPingu commented 10 years ago

I know a lot of people are beating their chests to what they consider music, but i don't think this is meant to mimic a human in any way. I mean .. who do you know has that many fingers / arms? lol.
I think it's cool, in a robotic music jazz type way. It won't replace humans in any way though, there's no emotion to it at all, it's just cool but i would have liked to see it in action rather than in the dark.
Picture of challenger45149 achievements

+1 10. challenger451 commented 10 years ago

The inovation by the musician in any song, makes the music. Can't be any inovation with a Robot. Sounds dry and desert to my ear.
Picture of loadrunner54 achievements

+1 11. loadrunner commented 10 years ago

A robot can never feel the singer and wait a second if the singer makes a small mistake, or play a solo if an other band member breaks his strings or looses connection to the soundboard.